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Pravit

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I found myself an old coffee-stained Classical Chinese reader at the local second-hand bookstore. I thought it'd be fun to try reading a bit when I'm not working on the other stuff. My question is on the use of 之. In the first passage(列子学射) there's the sentence:

子知子之所以中者乎?

What role does 之 play in this sentence?

The other sentence where I didn't understand the 之 was after Guanyinzi had asked him the second time if he knew why he was able to hit the target, to which Liezi responds with "知之矣。"

Thanks for any help!

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子 - you

知 - know

之所以 - the reason that

中 - hit the target

乎 - indicate question

子知子之所以中者乎? - Do you know the reason that you've hit the target?

知 - know

之 - it (the reason)

矣 - indicate timing

知之矣 - I know it now.

A modern translation of the story -> http://lylong.wx-e.com/gdyy110.htm

... althouth this may not have answered your question about the function of 知.

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在“子之所以中者乎”里面:

“子”,“你”的意思。

“所以中者”,用现在的话来说就是“中的原因”。其中“所以”是表示原因的词,可理解为“……的原因”;“者”是语助词,表示停顿。

“之”,相当于现代汉语中的“的”,属于结构助词,表示修饰关系。

“乎”,疑问助词。

我的古文学得比较差劲,不过以上的解释应该不会有什么问题。

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From what I understand, 之 has at least five different uses in Classical Chinese.

1. It can be used as a verb, meaning to "go (to a place)."

2. It can be used as a demonstrative pronoun, meaning "that/those."

3. It can be used as a third person object pronoun, meaning "him," "her," "it," or "them."

4. It can be used between a subject and a verb to turn the clause in which it occurs into a noun.

5. It can be used as the equivalent of modern Chinese 的.

The last usage has been retained to a certain degree in modern Chinese. The rest have disappeared.

In 子知子之所以中者乎, I think the 之 represents usage number 4 above and turns the clause after 子知 into the direct object of the sentence. In 知之已, the 之 represents usage number 3.

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Thanks for the explanation, Altair! I guess I will go with your explanation combined with the book, then, because I don't like to think dear old Sean G. Leung is lying to me. BTW, I have not been able to find any references to this book on the net.

http://www.imagehosting.us/?id=124362&type=viewpic

Does anyone recognize this book? BTW, there's another book in the pic, it appears to be some kind of workbook for grade school students. Those second-hand bookshop fellows thought they could make a penny off selling workbooks like this that had already been filled in; however, I managed to find an unused one, I did. Do you think it will be any use to me to work through it?

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